(photo: Windsor Lake, August 1949.)
The first was the hole in Dawe's Pond, located off a woods road just off the Trans-Canada Highway 15 minutes west of Badger. Locals had reported hearing a loud noise, and a cabin owner found a large, partially iced-over hole. It was surmised the hole had been created sometime around March 7th or 8th. Jim Gillard of the Twillingate Observatory investigated the mysterious crater, and suggested a meteor or piece of space junk had fallen through the ice.
Amateur astronomer Gary Dymond studied photographs of the Dawe's Lake site and spoke to nearby residents. Rather than blaming the crater on something crashing into it, he suggested that the hole could have been created by a buildup of methane gas which exploded, rupturing the ice from below.
"It would be interesting to solve the mystery," Dymond told local media. "But I think it will stay as a mystery."
A few days later a cabin owner on Powderhorn Lake, about six kilometers away, noticed a strange hole in centre of the icy pond. That circular crater measured about 30 metres across, with ripples in the ice along the edge of the hole.
The whole business reminded me of another strange story involving a well-known Newfoundland body of water, Windsor Lake, just outside of St. John’s.
About ten years ago, I got a note from a Mr. J.D. Terry, of Fort Mojave, Arizona. In his initial email, Terry hinted of an untold story about an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) dating back to the 1950s, a sighting of a strange craft which had never been reported to the media.
Terry's sighting took place one morning in the spring of 1955 when he was with the United States Air Force. Terry spent four years serving as an NCOIC (Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge) at a communications outpost codenamed "Snelgrove" near Twenty Mile Pond, the historical name for Windsor Lake.
On the morning in question, Terry noticed a strange craft hovering over one end of the pond in the early dawn light. As he watched, it seemed as if the UFO was absorbing water or moisture from the body of water. The craft stayed airborne without moving for two to three minutes, poised between 10 and 15 feet above the water. Suddenly, it rose several hundred feet and shot off in a south-southwest direction. Within seconds, it had vanished.
Terry had received training as a control tower operator and radio operator, and was therefore familiar with all types of aircraft. What he saw that day was unlike any aircraft he had ever seen.
He was the only one awake when this occurred, and therefore the only eyewitness. Without any corroborating evidence, he could not make an official report of the sighting.
What is intriguing about the Twenty Mile Pond sighting is Terry's claim that the UFO seemed to be drawing up water from the pond. While this may be unusual, it is not unheard of in the weird world of ufology, and the Newfoundland example is but one of several on the Atlantic coast.
Between 1955 and 1999, Mosquito Lagoon, Florida, was host to 42 known sightings of aerial phenomena. The lagoon is a large body of saline water, part of the Kennedy Space Centre. In two cases, witnesses reported he UFOs with hoses lowered into the water, as if they were sucking up water.
Maybe something like this happened in Central Newfoundland this month. Perhaps those little green men, not satisfied with stealing water this time around, came back for some ice for their drinks.
I, for one, will have to agree with Dymond. I think it will all stay as a mystery.
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